The new James Bond’s movie, No Time To Die, recently became the latest blockbuster to be pushed into next year as the movie industry struggles to get back to business amid coronavirus pandemic.
Bond’s exit leaves Wonder Woman 1964 currently set to debut in December on Christmas day as one of the few big movies still on the 2020 slate. Other big budget flicks including Marvel’s Black Widow and a top gun sequel also have been delayed until next year.
‘No Time To Die’ from MGM and Comcast corp’s universal pictures originally was set to hit the big screen in April 2020, before being delayed until November. The new date is April 2,2021.A fast and furious sequel scheduled for that date was moved to May 28,2021.
The movie studios and producers, Michael G.Wilson and Babara Broceli said the bond, film was delayed in order to be seen by a world wide theatrical audience.
“ We understand the delay will be disappointing to our fans, but we now look forward to sharing ‘No Time To Die’ next year, they said on official James Bond’s twitter account.
The decision follows a disappointing effort to set Americans back into multiplexes after the pandemic shuttered cinemas world wide in March. While AMC entertainment Cine world PLC and others have re- opened, many locations and crowds have been seen in theatres in many markets of New York and Los Angeles remain shut.
Studios are having to continually confront the hard facts of a very challenging market place, said Cormscore senior media analyst, Paid Dergatabedian. But he added that the Bond delay showed that producers believe theatres were preferred destinations for the film.
Some movies have skipped theatres and headed straight to streaming services, the Bond franchise is one of the world’s most lucrative with 2015’s Spectre raking in $ 880 million at the box office world wide, while Skyfall in 2020 grossed more than $ 1 billion globally.
‘No Time To Die’ which cost an estimated $ 200 million to produce, marks actor Daniel Craig’s last outing as agent 007.